Football Alphabet - Managers Moyes, Mourinho, Meulensteen and Mackay do Battle

The battles at the top and bottom of the Premier League are starting to take shape now that we are 15 games into the current season and I have picked out a quartet of managers with names beginning with "M" that may well be contesting some of those vital league positions.

Moyes versus Mourinho

This battle may yet develop into the close contest many thought it would be at the start of the season but thanks to Manchester United’s dreadful (by their own standards) start to the season, David Moyes is struggling a bit and United are already playing catch up. Jose Mourinho, despite a much healthier league position and return of points, hasn't had it all his own way either. Just when Chelsea look like they are really hitting their stride and playing great football, they throw in a lazy draw or unlikely defeat and at the time of writing, remain 5 points behind early pacesetters Arsenal.

However, there is still plenty of time for the Moyes v Mourinho battle to take shape, if not this season, then over the coming seasons. Both managers are adapting to a new environment (albeit Mourinho is a little more familiar with his) and really have their hands full in attempting to deliver silverware for their expectant supporters this year. Most pundits believe that the league season is already over for Man United (who sit 13 points off the top of the table) and although there is an almighty gap to make up, history tells that they don’t often “get going” until January anyway. Most pundits also believe that they need to buy 3 or 4 world class players in the January transfer window.

Mackay versus Meulensteen

At the time of writing there is only 1 point and 2 league positions separating Fulham and Cardiff City (1 point better off), so although new Fulham boss Rene Meulensteen is fresh to the fray, this battle is already in full swing. Fulham, frankly have had a dreadful start to the campaign and although many believe Martin Jol is a highly competent manager, the body language from both him and his team had been very, very poor in the month prior to Jol’s unfortunate but inevitable sacking. Fulham have already shown considerably more fight in Meulensteen’s first 2 games in charge and are perhaps unlucky to only have 3 points to show for their efforts.

Cardiff City have only 1 win in their last 9 games and despite some impressive performances (a win against Man City and a draw with Man United), the Welsh team now seem to be finding the Premier League as tough as they might have expected when they got promoted. Malky Malkay (perfect initials for this episode) hasn't just had to contend with getting his team to perform on the pitch but also issues behind the scenes, with a chairman who although undoubtedly has put money into the club, very much has his own way of doing things.

On paper at least, Fulham seem to have the more creative squad and are perhaps better equipped to survive, but Cardiff will battle, make no mistake about that and the Mackay v Meulensteen battle may well turn out to be a more interesting contest than the one involving Moyes and Mourinho.

Premier League Football Alphabet 2013/2014 - C for Cardiff City, Chelsea and Crystal Palace

This is it football fans, the premier league season is (at the time of writing) less than 16 hours away. Liverpool, minus the still suspended Luis Suarez will entertain Stoke City in the day’s early kick off. However, our football alphabet is still at the letter C, so unless Coutinho or Crouch light up the opening fixture, let’s concentrate on Chelsea, Cardiff and Crystal Palace and their chances for the coming season.

Chelsea - Many people have Chelsea as favourites for the title this season and we certainly wouldn’t disagree with them – not unless there are dramatic developments before the close of the transfer window. Despite a very uncomfortable season at Stamford Bridge last time out, with both Roberto Di Matteo and Rafa Benitez departing, they still finished a very comfortable 3^rd in the table and won the Europa League.

At times, they played some outstanding football, with the likes of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar lighting up the midfield with silky skills. Now add the likes of Andre Schurrle, Marco van Ginkel, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku to the mix and an already impressive outfit looks even stronger. John Terry, Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres are also still holding the fort and the blend of youth and experience looks special. Speaking of special – one Jose Mourinho has returned as manager, to the club where he had so much success  and this combination of great players and great manager might just make Chelsea the Champions come May 2014.

Cardiff City - Not the blues but the reds have joined their Welsh rivals in the Premier League and on the surface at least it would appear that a season of struggle for survival could be ahead. Swansea managed to prove everybody wrong when they came up and stayed up but the Bluebirds (or is it the Dragons) may need to splash the cash a bit more to give themselves a fighting chance. They have been trying though – Andreas Cornelius has been brought in from FC Copenhagen to score goals but the English Premier League is...“leagues” away from the Danish Superliga. Steven Caulker from Spurs was a good bit of business and one would suspect that Cardiff will need lots of clean sheets to give themselves a chance. Craig Bellamy won’t look out of place back at this level but he is now in the twilight of his career so fans will have fingers crossed for 2 or 3 big signings before the end of August – or January if push comes to shove.

Crystal Palace - Like Cardiff, the newly promoted Eagles could be in for a tough time. Zaha has gone to Man United, Glenn Murray is injured, Chamakh has yet to prove he can do the business at this level and manager Ian Holloway lost out to Fulham for the signing of Darren Bent. The positives are that it will be 11 v 11 once out on the pitch but unless some serious business is done before the window closes, Crystal Palace unfortunately look like a Championship squad in a division that may be beyond them

We are all for the underdogs here at Sporting Voices though, so we wish the best of luck to Cardiff City and Crystal Palace in the Premier league. We don’t think Chelsea will be needing much of that luck but wish them all the best regardless.